Category: Vegetables n Gravies

I was hardly 5 years old then; it was a nice evening when I was playing in the backyard of my pattama’s (maternal granny is called pattama) home. Few guests arrived in a car to invite the family for wedding or something. Pattama along with thatha(grandpa) and uncle went out to receive them while I peeked into the hall to see if anything interesting to me happened; nothing so exiting as elders were sharing pleasantries and so I returned to the garden to play around the well with calves there. At times I help pattama pluck the flowers from her garden for the temple visit later in the evening, that day I volunteered to do as she was busy taking care of the guests. Sometime later the aroma of hot puris dragged me to the kitchen and there I saw pattamma had almost readied the dinner while she presented me a bowl of hot kesari topped with extra cashews. That is her love, that’s her knack- nice delicious dinner in no time; and for me hospitality is synonymous to pattama even now. Now comes the intro of our protagonist ‘Bombay Chutney’, yeah puri was to go with it for dinner. They had no mixie in those days and so this instant side dish was a pretty wise choice. When I was done with kesari she sent me back to garden for getting some fresh coriander to add to the glamor of Bombay chutney. That is probably the first time I can remember having Bombay chutney. Don’t ask me the etymology, I have no idea; but to me, till date it is pattama’s Bombay Chutney that is mapped mentally when I come across this recipe. However, making it more nutritious by augmenting veggies was done by my mom and I follow that.

The other day I had tried this mixed veg curry for roti which I liked very much but Kundan only kind of liked it. It is slightly creamy and bland as though it is a tweaked version of avail (A famous kerala mixed veg dish cooked in coconut milk). Best thing about this recipe is we can make it with different combination of vegetables like carrot, capsicum, bush beans, potato, cauliflower, green peas, beetroot and so apart from tomato and onion that are added as base. It is quite healthy; however, may not go as well with rice varieties.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.Carrot – 1

2.Beans – 5-8

3.Capsicum – 1

4.Onion – 1

5.Tomato – 1

6.Green chili – 1

7.Oil – 1 tbsp

8.Salt to taste

9.Turmeric powder – 2 pinches

10.Chili powder – ½ tsp

11. Coriander powder – 1 tsp

12. Cumin powder – ¼ tsp

13. Chopped coriander – 2 tbsp

14. Milk – ½ cup

Method:

Step 1: Cut the vegetables into small cubes and roughly chop chili, tomato and onion.

Step 2: Add ½ tbsp of oil in a heated tawa and sauté onion, tomato and chili in it until soft by adding a pinch of salt.

Step 3: Cool the sautéed mixture and grind into fine paste.

Step 4: Heat few drops of oil in the same tawa and sauté the vegetables with required salt, one by one preferably to retain their crisp & colours (each vegetable requires different amount of time depending on their nature and cut size).

Step 5: Now add the tomato-onion paste to the tawa and sauté for a minute and then add salt, turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder to sauté for another 2 minutes.

Step 6: Pour a cup of water and add the vegetables to it. Adjust salt and spices if necessary and cook covered.

Step 7: Once vegetables are soft and the gravy becomes thick add the milk and stir in slow heat until it starts boiling and then turn off heat. (Skip milk if you don’t want)

Bottle gourd is such a healthy vegetable: it helps digestion, it cools the body, it is beneficial to skin and is mainly sought-after for weight loss.But I have never heard anyone call it a favourite veggie; in my mom-in-law’s home they don’t even include it in anyway. When we had Kundan’s cousin for lunch, I wanted to try this lauki kofta curry as I thought that’s a cheering way to feed bottle gourd to people who abhor it on plate. I’m not sure how far my guests or Kundan liked it but our maid appreciated it pretty much.

Serves: 4

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1.Bottle gourd – 1 small

2.Gram flour – 3 tbsp

3.Red chili powder – 2 tsp

4.Salt to taste

5.Lemon – 1

6.Oil as required

7.Cinnamon – 2 “ piece

8.Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

9.Onion – 1 large

10.Tomato – 4

11. Coriander powder – 1 tsp

12. Cumin powder – ¼ tsp

13. Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

14. Ginger garlic paste – ½ tsp

15. Almonds – 6-10 no.

16. Coriander – 2 tbsp chopped

Method:

Step 1: Soak almonds in hot water.

Step 2: Peel and grate the bottle gourd into fine shreds [I did a mistake by making thick shreds; it made the kofta chewy even after cooking]. Add 2 pinches of salt and leave aside for 30 minutes after which you need to squeeze out the juice (save it for gravy) and take it in a mixing bowl.

Step 3: To the grated bottled gourd, add gram flour, ½ tsp of chili powder, juice of half a lemon, salt and mix well. Add more flour if required, roll into 2” balls and deep fry them until golden brown.

I have adapted this ‘palak gobi’ recipe from Priyanka Panigrahi’s tasteofparadiseblog.com and altered slightly for convenience. I always had only option to cook green leafy vegetable for roti which is palak paneer, this gives another choice. I had packed it for his lunch the other day and it came out decently. I would like to try it with few other locally available green leafy vegetables.

Baingan is Brinjal and this dish is more like a ‘kathirikai masiyal’ that we’ve in south India. Here we like to eat it with steamed rice while in north it is preferred with rotis mainly. Traditionally for Baigan ka bartha, large eggplants are chosen and charred on stove before the skin is peeled to prepare bartha as I din’t get large ones I just chopped them fine and used in the recipe. This is so flavourful and totally different in texture from other Brinjal recipes and so even people who detest Brinjal would like to try it.

Serves: 3

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.Brinjal large – 1 or small -4

2.Tomato large – 1

3.Onion medium – 1

4.Salt to taste

5.Oil – 1 tbsp

6.Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

7.Asafoetida – 1 pinch

8.Coriander powder – 1 tsp

9.Chili powder – 1 tsp

10. Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp chopped

Method:

Step 1: Char the large brinjal directly on stove on all sides. Cool it, wash, peel the skin and slit to check for worms and mash it with masher chop if using small ones.

Step 2: Alternatively chop the small brinjals into small cubes as I have done.